The Dangers of Short Hikes

During my "retirement" (as I have dubbed my two month break between jobs) I did a lot of hiking which was positively wonderful. One Wednesday I was sitting at home, the sun was shinning, and it was set to be a beautiful day. It suddenly occurred to me, I can do anything I want! So, I got up and drove 40 minutes to a popular hike in the area (Little Si, for those in the area). It was 5 miles, a nice recovery hike after the 12 miler I had done the past weekend. It's easy to see why it's a popular hike. I summited, ate my lunch at the top, and then started hiking down. Somewhere in the decent I turned my knee just right and wrenched it so badly that it took me nearly twice as long to descend as to ascend.

I went crying to my physical therapist who told me I was off hiking for a while and to take it easy on my knee. Two and a half weeks later I begged him to clear me for another hike. He said ok, but "no more than 8 miles and 2000 feet in elevation gain." I was so determined to listen that instead of hiking we just went to the tide pools and scrambled over rocks and such. It couldn't have been much more than 2 miles.

I was proud of myself.

I think he was relieved I didn't push the matter.

I'd like to go back to the part where I had hiked 12 miles 3 days prior with no incident, and then, on a dumb little 5 mile hike and I twisted my knee so bad I could hardly walk. There is no justice in the world. When I groused about this my PT shook his head and said, "that's how it always happens. People rarely hurt themselves on the big stuff." Tragically, this is not comforting.